All posts tagged Mobile

While the timetable for a sapphire-screen iPhone remains unknown, a little known Chinese manufacturer has unveiled an “unbreakable” smartphone with a display made of sapphire that can be used to stir fry chestnuts in a big wok as shown in its latest promotional video.

State-controlled electronics maker Desay has started taking preorders for its new 5-inch sapphire-screen phone called Magical Mirror X5 through China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile carrier by subscribers in the country. Read More »

Samsung Electronics Co. ’s attempt to stay on top of the fast-changing smartphone business will depend on winning back people like He Wenzong. The 30-year-old apparel-company employee and Shanghai resident last year traded his Galaxy S3 phone, one of Samsung’s most successful products, for a handset made by Beijing-based upstart Xiaomi Inc., which a few months ago displaced Samsung as China’s No. 1 smartphone seller. Read More »

After two years of study, mobile-messaging-app maker Line Corp. plans to expand in China later this year by establishing a local team to develop content and features to further tap the world’s largest mobile market. But can it compete with the giants already on the ground? Read More »

Lenovo Group is attempting to differentiate itself with a suite of homegrown apps on its new tablet.

The move comes as many smartphones and tablets today offer chips, screens and cameras that are more or less similar, and that leaves gadget makers struggling to distinguish themselves in other areas. Read More »

In its latest step to attract Chinese smartphone users, e-commerce company Alibaba Group said it is planning to launch a mobile gaming service soon.

Alibaba is considering integrating its new mobile gaming service into its messaging app, Laiwang, as well as its Mobile Taobao app for online shopping. It is also planning to launch the gaming service as a standalone app.

In the world of gaming and other mobile-based services, Alibaba faces powerful competitor Tencent Holdings, a giant in online gaming and social networking services. Read More »

China Mobile may have secured a deal with Apple to sell iPhones, but it’s looking like a costly partnership at least in the near term.

Since Apple confirmed the deal with China Mobile, brokerages have been swiftly reducing their earnings forecast for the world’s largest carrier by subscribers because of steep capital outlays for a new network and anticipated handset subsidies.

The carrier will also have to contend with lower interconnection fees from rivals as of Jan. 1 as part of the government’s latest effort to promote competition.

At China Mobile Ltd.’s forum to unveil its new fourth-generation mobile brand in Guangzhou, the company was still mum about its plans to offer Apple Inc.’s iPhones.

“We hope to offer iPhones on the company’s network soon,” Chief Executive Li Yue told The Wall Street Journal on the sidelines of the conference, when asked about when China Mobile’s more than 700 million customers can have access to the popular smartphones. Read More »

Taiwan might be losing its crown as a technology hub to China, but a company from the island has still emerged as the fastest-growing in the sector in the Asian Pacific region.

A recent report by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. said China Communications Media Group, a Taiwanese apps and games store operator, was the fastest-growing technology firm in terms of revenue growth in Asia-Pacific in 2013. Read More »

China Central Television sat quietly on the sidelines of its annual advertising auction, an event typically seen as a barometer for the economy and a muscle show for the state broadcaster. It broke 20 years of tradition by declining to disclose the auction’s final total sales figures, inviting only a handful of state reporters to the event and downplaying what it has hyped every year before.

Expert Insight

New rules on labor negotiations in southern China offer a potential solution to the country's growing problem with labor unrest while at the same time illustrating the difficulty the Communist Party faces in effectively addressing workers’ grievances.

For much of the last half-century, changing China through economic reform seemed to make far better sense than transforming the country through political revolution. Xi Jinping is trying to flip that on its head.

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